Luigi Mangione’s defense on Monday sought to portray the Pennsylvania cop who found the alleged murder weapon used to kill UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson as rashly — and unlawfully — rooting through evidence in a frenzy over the high-profile bust.
As marathon evidence suppression hearings in Mangione’s state homicide case stretched into their second week, Altoona, Pa., Officer Christy Wasser was subjected to a grilling by the Maryland man’s lawyer about how truly concerned she was about him having a bomb during his Dec. 9, 2024, arrest.
Pulling up body cam footage, defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo homed in on a conversation between Wasser and high-ranking officers at an Altoona McDonald’s after she’d quickly searched Mangione’s backpack and turned up a fully loaded magazine wrapped in wet underwear, a cell phone in a Faraday bag, a hoagie, pocketknife and various personal items.
In the footage, the patrolwoman justified the search to her colleagues, saying she’d looked through the bag to rule out an explosive. Not all seemed to agree.
“I understand,” Cpl. Garrett Trent is heard telling Wasser. “At this point, we probably need a search warrant.”
A beat cop interrupts to say that the bag was searched under protocol that permits cops to look through a suspect’s belongings without a warrant at the moment of arrest.
“Yeah, but we are aware of that crime,” Trent says in the footage.
Mangione’s lawyers are seeking to convince Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro that the items seized should be barred from his 2026 trial, as the Altoona cops had no grounds to comb through his belongings so thoroughly, given they were only arresting him on suspicion of carrying a fake ID. A search warrant was obtained several hours later, the court heard Monday.
ADAM GRAY/AFP via Getty Images
The McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where Luigi Mangione was arrested on Dec. 9, 2024. (Photo by ADAM GRAY/AFP via Getty Images)
The court last week heard that officers responded to the McDonald’s after the manager called 911, reporting that customers had recognized Mangione, 27, as the suspect wanted for killing Thompson five days before. He was formally taken into custody after handing over a New Jersey driver’s license for one Mark Rosario, though the lead arresting officer told the court he had no doubt Mangione was the fugitive wanted for Thompson’s killing.
Wasser, a 19-year vet, on Monday testified repeatedly that Mangione wasn’t treated differently from other arrestees and that she was following orders when she searched his bag at the restaurant and back at the stationhouse, where she found the 9-mm. handgun prosecutors allege was used to kill Thompson, a silencer and the notebook allegedly containing a “manifesto.”
Wasser admitted she’d overlooked the items during the search for a potential bomb at the McDonald’s.
In one particularly heated back-and-forth, Agnifilo pressed the patrolwoman to explain why it took her and a fellow officer a few minutes longer to drive to the stationhouse from the McDonald’s than their colleagues — and why she hadn’t taken off the surgical gloves she wore to search the bag at the restaurant.
The lawyer accused Wasser of stopping on the journey to secretly search through the bag, suggesting that was why she instantly found the alleged murder weapon back at the station in a section of the bag she hadn’t checked at the McDonald’s.
“That is not accurate,” Wasser said.
Zeroing in on footage taken at the precinct, the defense lawyer asked Wasser to explain a comment she made to a colleague — that the situation was “awesome” — as she combed through Mangione’s backpack and unloaded the gun.
“Yes,” Wasser said, explaining that she meant she was “proud” of her department.
“Because you caught the New York City shooter?” Agnifilo said.
“Possibly,” Wasser conceded.
“By the way, you’re not still looking for a bomb?” Agnifilo asked of the continued search at the precinct.
“Correct,” Wasser said.
Curtis Means / POOL / AFP via Getty Images
Luigi Mangione appears in Manhattan Supreme Court alongside his attorneys Jacob Kaplan (left) and Karen Friedman Agnifilo (right) during an evidentiary hearing on Monday. (Photo by Curtis Means / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)
Carro has heard from a slate of witnesses, with many more to go.
Last week, a British correction officer testified about shooting the breeze with Mangione while he monitored his cell at a Pennsylvania prison. The guard said they spoke about the U.S.’ private health insurance system compared with nationalized health care in other countries and claimed the suspect was interested in how Thompson’s killing was being portrayed in the media.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office has alleged Mangione, of Towson, Md., planned Thompson’s killing for months before traveling to New York on Nov. 24, 2024, and checking into an Upper West Side hostel.
Ten days later, they allege he fatally shot Thompson outside the Hilton in Midtown with the pistol Wasser later discovered, and fled the state. The murdered health care exec, 50, was a father to two teen boys. He was visiting the city from Minnesota for an investor conference at the Sixth Ave. hotel.
Mangione, an Ivy League graduate from a prominent Maryland family, has pleaded not guilty in the case. He’s also fighting federal charges, alleging he stalked and murdered Thompson, in a capital case that’s also playing out in Manhattan.
